Friday, June 5, 2009

In January 2006 I was invited to attend a book fair in Cuba, where one of my books, newly translated into Spanish, was being presented. All my expenses were to be paid by the Cuban government and I was very much looking forward to the visit. Only one problem — the government of the United States would not give me permission to go. My application to travel to Cuba had also been rejected in 1998 by the Clinton administration. (On that occasion I went anyhow and was extremely lucky to avoid being caught by the American Travel Police on the way back and being fined thousands of dollars.) I mention this because Obama supporters would have us believe — as they themselves believe — that their Changeman has been busy making lots of important changes, Cuba being only one example. But I still don't have the legal right to travel to Cuba.

The only real change made by the Obama administration in regard to Cuba is that Cuban-Americans with family on the island can travel there and send remittances without restrictions. The April 13 White House announcement listed several other provisions concerning telecommunications companies, but what this will actually mean in practice, if anything, is unknown, particularly as it affects Cuba's access to the Internet. American anti-Castroites have long blamed Cuban's deficient Internet access on the proverbial "communist suppression", when the technical availability and prohibitive cost were to a large extent in the hands of American corporations. Microsoft, for example, bars Cuba from using its Messenger instant messaging service.4 And Google has long blocked Cuban access to many of its features.5 Venezuela and Cuba have been working on an underwater cable system that they hope will make them less reliant on the gringos.

The multifarious US economic embargo, which causes unending hardship and expense for the Cuban people, remains in place. Here is Changeman in a recent press conference:

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President. You've heard from a lot of Latin America leaders here who want the U.S. to lift the embargo against Cuba. You've said that you think it's an important leverage to not lift it. But in 2004, you did support lifting the embargo. You said, it's failed to provide the source of raising standards of living, it's squeezed the innocent, and it's time for us to acknowledge that this particular policy has failed. I'm wondering, what made you change your mind about the embargo?The President: Well, 2004, that seems just eons ago. What was I doing in 2004?Reporter: Running for Senate.The President: Is it while — I was running for Senate. There you go.6Yes, there you go; you shouldn't confuse campaign rhetoric with the real world and the real Changeman.

The case of the Cuban Five is another chance for Changeman to come to the rescue. This outrageous perversion of justice whereby Cubans were sent to the United States to try to learn of further terrorist attacks in Cuba planned by anti-Castroites in Florida and were themselves arrested by the FBI on information partly supplied to the US by the Cuban government as their contribution to the War On Terrorism.7

The Cuban Five have been in US prisons for more than 10 years. Around June 15 the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on whether or not they will hear the appeal of the Five. The Clinton administration arrested them. The Bush administration continued the awful, mindless, crimeless persecution for eight more years. But now comes the Changeman administration. Hooray! Oh, in late May, the Changeman administration filed a brief urging the Court to deny the Five a hearing, and on June 2, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an Organization of American States meeting: "I want to emphasize the United States under President Obama is taking a completely new approach to our policy toward Cuba."8

Another opportunity for Changeman to come to the rescue also involves Cuba — closing the Guantanamo prison. But our hero is once again displaying a woeful lack of political courage and imagination. If there's good evidence that certain detainees are a danger to anyone, then try them in US civilian courts with full rights, a decent defense team, and excluding secret evidence and coerced confessions. If they're found guilty — and with an American jury sitting in judgment of "terrorists", this, in almost all cases, would be the verdict — then imprison them in one of America's maximum security prisons, which already houses about 355 men labeled as "terrorists".9 The new ones will not be any more of a danger in prison than the ones already there.

However, if they're found innocent, then declare them free men. It would be much easier then to find a country to accept them, including the United States. Until now, the world has been told repeatedly by Washington that these men are "the worst of the worst". Small wonder that no country or community wants them near. But if they've been tried and acquitted, this situation should change markedly.

So Mr. Obama, we're waiting for you to step into a phone booth.

"Men go mad in herds, but only come to their senses one by one." — Charles Mackay, 19th century Scottish journalist

Notes

Washington Post, May 26, 2009 book review↩Washington Post, May 15, 2009↩Associated Press, December 12, 2006↩Associated Press, June 2, 2009 ↩Does Google Censor Cuba? ↩White House Press Office, April 19, 2009 ↩Cuban Political Prisoners ... in the United States ↩Washington Post, June 3, 2009. ↩"There Are Already 355 Terrorists in American Prisons", Slate Magazine, May 29, 2009↩"The fundamental social division is class, not race or gender", World Socialist Web Site, May 28, 2009↩–

William Blum is the author of:

Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only SuperpowerWest-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War MemoirFreeing the World to Death: Essays on the American EmpirePortions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, at www.killinghope.org

what's this about?

After the Reverend Lucius Walker Jr. was shot by 'Freedom Fighters,' with a bullet his tax dollars bought (ostensibly to 'liberate' Nicaraguans), he decided to do something different.

This year, 2012, marks the 23rd year for the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment. Sometime in June or July we'll begin journeying along 15 or so different routes, starting in Canada and travelling through the USA and Mexico, collecting and delivering humanitarian aid to the incredible Cubans.

What we're doing is technically illegal. We're challenging a blockade that has held since 1961 - coincidentally, the year I was born. We're delivering humanitarian aid (health and school supplies, computers, etc) directly to the Cuban people.

Cuba is not a perfect society .... but they do some things really well. True to their revolutionary principles, and I believe Che would be pleased, there is an incredible holistic health care system that cares for people from cradle to grave (and perhaps beyond) and all education (including University) is free. They do organic and community agriculture, and they're not slaves to the IMF and World Bank (who demand 'structural adjustment policies,' essentially the death of publically owned services, in exchange for loans.) There is some foreign investment in Cuba, but the Cubans won't allow foreigners to own more than 49%.

We caravanistas believe that Cuba has the right to exist.

You're welcome to follow the journey along .... check out the movie about Che and the revolution, call your local community radio and indy media folks, let them know you want them to follow the 23rd Caravan to Cuba.

Eso si que es la vida !!! This is the life !!!

about me

i've lost faith in the corporate and state media. they claim to be 'balanced' and 'un-biased,' but they're not.

sometimes they lie outright. most of the time they leave a lot of information and context out. they're often earth un-friendly, printing mostly advertising on dead trees. they're funded and motivated by big money, big power, and subsequently we hear what they want us to hear.

i created this blog so i could share my journey with pastors for peace. i've been a social justice and environmental activist for a couple of decades. i'll be up front about it - that's the perspective you'll find here. you don't have to believe any of it if you don't want. go on your own journey, write your own blog. maybe i'll read it.

the first time i participated in the humanitarian aid caravan to cuba was in 2008. i went again in 2009. it's so much fun i'm doing it again in 2012, with the 23rd caravan. it's also a lot of hard work, and expensive, but the cubans are such an inspiration with their free education and health care ... and activists like me feel very welcomed there. if you'd like to share some financial support for the journey, i won't stop you, and i promise i'll spend it responsibly and ethically.